JOHN YANG: Tonight on PBS News Weekend, Israeli bombing of Gaza eases as President Trump warns Hamas that if they don't quickly agree to his peace plan, all bets are off.

Then, as long COVID continues to affect millions of Americans, what researchers and patient advocates say needs to be done about it.

And from northern Spain, the uncertain future of the most expensive cheese ever sold at auction.

WOMAN (through translator): What can you do?

You think maybe the world's going to end if you don't make your cheese, but it will go on.

Still, it's something you say to yourself and then if I stop, there's no more.

(BREAK) JOHN YANG: Good evening.

I'm John Yang.

President Trump is sending envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Cairo this weekend to try to nail down a deal between Hamas and Israel to free the remaining Israeli hostages.

The president hopes that would be the first step toward ending their war, which is to enter its third year.

On Tuesday in Gaza, the skies were relatively calm.

Palestinian hospital officials say Israeli bombing has significantly subsided, though not stopped entirely.

They said at least five Palestinians had been killed.

Israeli officials say the IDF has shifted to a defensive posture in Gaza.

On social media, the president said the next steps were up to the Palestinian militant group.

Hamas must move quickly or else all bets are off.

I will not tolerate delay or any outcome where Gaza poses a threat.

Again, let's get this done fast.

In Khan Younis, displaced Palestinians said Mr.

Trump's pressure should be directed elsewhere.

SHEREEN KHAROUB, Displaced Palestinian (through translator): My message to Mr.

Trump is to pressure Israel for a ceasefire.

He is feeling for us and aware of our situation.

This is enough.

Displacement, no food, no stability and no life.

He sees us.

Certainly he sees us and feels for us.

JOHN YANG: While both Hamas and Israel have sounded positive about Mr.

Trump's plan, they've also indicated there is still much to be resolved.

Aaron David Miller was a U.S.

Middle East negotiator in Republican and Democratic administrations.

He's now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

You're a former negotiator.

You hear the things that Israel is saying that Hamas is saying.

Do you get the feeling that we're on our way to a deal?

AARON DAVID MILLER, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: You know, usually my sense is.

Is pretty negative given the gaps between Israel and Hamas over the last couple of years.

But, yeah, I think we are at least on the way to the release of hostages in exchange probably, probably for an end to Israel's comprehensive military campaign in Gaza.

Beyond that, it is really difficult to say because both the yes, but from Israel and the yes, but for sure from Hamas to the president's 20 points basically reflect still the impossibility right now of reconciling what the Israelis want for an end state and what Hamas does.

But I think, John, closer than ever, although in Arab, Israeli, Palestinian negotiations, ever is a kind of a problematic idea.

JOHN YANG: Explain what the sticking points are on each side.

What in the deal is Hamas not crazy about?

What in the deal Israel not terribly excited about?

AARON DAVID MILLER: I think both are not excited about any of it, except the president is the most exciting because what he is going to be able to accomplish, if it holds is the return of all the hostages, living and dead, and likely, as I mentioned, an end to Israel's comprehensive military campaign in Gaza.

Hamas wants to survive, and they will be looking for two commitments that I don't think this Israeli government will be willing to give.

Withdraw all Israeli forces from Gaza and a formal end to the war where the Israelis will not continue to exercise the right to preempt or prevent if Hamas resurges.

As far as Mr.

Netanyahu is concerned, he wanted, quote, unquote, total victory, as he has maintained these many months, which would have meant the end of Hamas as an organized military organization.

I think he probably the Israeli Defense Forces have achieved that.

What they have not achieved, and I think this is going to be extremely difficult, is the end of Hamas's political influence in Gaza and its existence as an insurgency.

So again, Netanyahu's end state and Hamas's are still, in my judgment, mutually irreconcilable.

This is happening.

Yes, Hamas is under pressure.

It's happening.

Yes, the Arabs are more united, but it is happening for one primary reason.

You have an American president.

I was part of administrations from Jimmy Carter to Bush 43.

You have an administration, a president, that has exercised unprecedented pressure on an Israeli prime minister.

Not since Eisenhower, who threatened David Ben Gurion with political and economic sanctions.

Has an American president been this tough with an Israeli prime minister and actually threatened a quote or else.

And this Israeli prime minister, since he needs Donald Trump to wage a successful election campaign to remain prime minister, probably in the spring or maybe the fall of 2026, couldn't say no.

JOHN YANG: Is that surprising given the relationship we saw between Mr.

Trump and Mr.

Netanyahu during Mr.

Trump's first term?

And also we keep hearing Netanyahu say Israel has had no better friend in the White House than Donald Trump.

AARON DAVID MILLER: I mean, Trump fashions himself as the most pro-Israeli president in human history.

And the reality is, during Trump 1.0, I think Donald Trump created what I would describe as a sugar high for the Israelis.

He applied no pressure, ample amounts of honey, but no vinegar this time around, given the fact that he wanted to claim success in not ending the war.

Let's be clear, the war between Israel and Hamas is going to go on But Trump, like in Ukraine, wanted to end the fighting but not the war.

Here, he's going to get the hostages out, most likely.

And he will ameliorate or diminish the comprehensive military campaign that the Israelis have waged over the last year, where they now occupy 75 to 80 percent of Gaza, where the Israelis are going to withdraw to?

Will Hamas's weapons be decommissioned, as it says in the president's proposal?

Is there going to be an Arab stabilization force will aid humanitarian assistance and reconstruction to provide 2 million Palestinians finally with a secure source of potable water, sanitation, access to proper medical care and enough food?

All of those issues, all of them remain to be negotiated.

JOHN YANG: Aaron David Miller, thank you very much.

AARON DAVID MIILER: John, thanks for having me.

JOHN YANG: In tonight's other headlines, British police are questioning six people arrested in connection with that deadly Yom Kippur attack on a Manchester synagogue.

Police say those arrested are between the ages of 18 and 61, but haven't disclosed their links to the suspected attacker, a 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian origin who was shot dead by police.

Police say he had stormed the synagogue and killed a man.

They also say that they accidentally killed another man as helped barricade the synagogue door.

Manchester police said it will continue increased patrols around all houses of worship.

Japan's long ruling party elected an ultra-conservative former economic minister to be its leader, positioning her to become the nation's first woman prime minister.

After her selection, Sanae Takaichi vowed to curb rising prices and focus on regional diplomatic and security challenges.

SANAE TAKAICHI, Liberal Democratic Party Leader (through translator): Rather than being happy, I feel like the tough work starts here.

All of us together have a ton of work to do.

We have a lot of policies to execute.

JOHN YANG: Takechi cites former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is an influence.

Parliament, where her party holds the most seats, is expected to vote to choose the next prime minister in two weeks.

Morocco's biggest anti-government protests in years turned deadly this week.

The demonstrations are led by a coalition of Moroccan youth who call themselves Gen Z212, named for the nation's dialing code.

The group says the government is pouring billions of dollars into infrastructure for the 2030 FIFA World Cup while neglecting domestic issues like health care and education.

Demonstrations began across Morocco a week ago, and some have become violent.

This week, three protesters were killed.

Still to come on PBS News Weekend, the lingering effects of Long COVID on millions of Americans.

And we take you to the dark cave in northern Spain where some of the world's most prized cheese is produced.

(BREAK) JOHN YANG: It's been more than two years since the pandemic ended, but millions of Americans are still living with long COVID.

That's a catch all term for COVID symptoms lasting at least three months after testing positive.

Symptoms can vary from person to person, but they range from mild to severe to physically disabling.

Recently, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

kicked off new efforts to address long COVID with a roundtable discussion with doctors, researchers and patient advocates.

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., Secretary of Health and Human Services: In the past, the response to epidemics of this kind of has been to pump a lot of money into ivory tower science to try to solve the problem.

We've already put $1.5 billion into NIH to solve Long COVID, and we've got literally nothing from it.

JOHN YANG: Ali Rogin spoke to two members of the long COVID community, Dr.

Michael Peluso, a physician and researcher at UC San Francisco who attended that roundtable meeting, and Meighan Stone, the executive director of the Long COVID Campaign.

ALI ROGIN: Michael and Meighan, thank you both so much for joining us.

Michael, first to you.

We just heard Secretary Kennedy say that there's been nothing to show for HHS investment so far in long COVID research.

What do you say to that?

MICHAEL PELUSO UC San Francisco: Well, I think many of us agree that progress has really been too slow.

There are a lot of patients really suffering a lot of disability, a huge economic cost.

At the same time, there's a lot of commitment on the part of clinicians caring for patients with long COVID, researchers really trying to figure out the answers for these patients.

What I think we need.

And what I hope that this roundtable will be the beginning of is a really clear both a short term plan and a long term plan for figuring this out.

We need a broader, organized strategy.

ALI ROGIN: So what would make up, Michael, sticking with you, that long and short term plan in order to make this strategy work?

What's needed?

MICHAEL PELUSO: There are actually three specific things that I advocated for at this meeting, and I think that there was kind of broad agreement on these things.

The first is real investment in a diagnostics and biomarker program, both to help people get a diagnosis of long COVID in the clinic, but also to help us identify individuals who may benefit from a specific treatment strategy or for participation in a specific clinical trial.

The second thing that we really need is a rapid scale up of the number of clinical trials that are happening.

We've seen some improvement, some increase in the number of clinical trials over the last couple of years.

But I'd like to see a dozen more clinical trials right now testing all of the different possible leads for what might cause long COVID and how we might help people feel better.

And then the third thing that we really need to help that happen is we need the pharmaceutical industry to get off the sidelines and to really commit to participating in clinical trials, putting their drugs up for testing, investing deeply in this problem so that we can get answers for people who are really debilitated from this condition.

ALI ROGIN: Meighan, as somebody who is a patient and an advocate, how are you feeling about the commitments that have been announced recently?

MEIGHAN STONE, Executive Director, Long COVID Campaign: Well, right now, Today, there's about 20 million Americans just like me who are living with long COVID and many of us were in the prime of our careers and lives and now are disabled and chronically ill.

And so the administration's announcements that Secretary Kennedy made were welcome.

It was really good to see the HHS secretary having a high level meeting, bringing together all the parts of government that we really need to work together to find a solution.

That's really what we need to see so that parents like myself can get back to volunteering at our kids schools, we can go back to our workplaces and patients can finally get the tests and the treatments that we've been waiting over five years for now.

ALI ROGIN: Meighan, you've been working on these things and advocating for your community for these five years.

Based on your experience, what are your hopes for what happens next?

And also where do your concerns lie?

MEIGHAN STONE: Like many patients, the Long COVID Campaign has been calling for biomarkers so that we can do research and figure out if treatments are going to work and hopefully get a test so that people in the United States, Americans who are disabled, can more easily qualify for disability, that we can see insurance coverage.

We really want to see the FDA move more quickly.

And we're hoping with these announcements from the administration that we'll see them more rapidly approved clinical trials with the endpoints that we need, and then work together on approving treatments and therapies that families and Americans living with Long COVID urgently need.

We didn't see the progress we needed under the Biden administration.

And I know so many patients are ready to work with this administration in an earnest way to actually solve this problem.

ALI ROGIN: And for both of you, COVID-19 and Long COVID are things that many Americans have quite simply moved on from, and yet there are many, many more people who are living with this every single day.

First to you, Michael, what do you want people who haven't been affected by Long COVID to know about this community?

MICHAEL PELUSO: I think it's really important that people understand that this can often be an invisible disease and that there are a lot of people really suffering and really debilitated by it.

And you know, I think that the investment in addressing this problem is likely to have benefits that extend beyond this problem.

Long COVID is a really, really challenging disease to study, to research, to treat, and it'll be a big problem to solve.

But I think that if we have the resources and the strategy and the long term plan to do it, this should be a problem that we can solve.

ALI ROGIN: And Meighan, Americans may feel like the pandemic's over or that COVID is in the rearview mirror, but even in just the last few months, we saw the announcement that Long COVID the most common childhood illness in the United States.

It even surpassed asthma so it's still with us.

And we know from recent research that the NIH just released that the numbers of people getting Long COVID, including children, adolescents, are just continuing.

This problem is not going away.

And people that have been sick for years are continuing to be sick.

They're not just resolving.

They need tests, they need treatments.

Most of all, I want patients to have hope, you know, and to call their elected members of Congress.

This is really a bipartisan or nonpartisan issue.

We have incredible champions for both Republicans, Democrats and even independents.

This is a problem we need to solve for the American people.

So I hope that patients will continue reaching out to the administration and to Congress and say that we need trials for antivirals, we need monoclonal antibodies, and we need a solution that's really going to work not just for people living with long COVID, but also the main millions of people who are living with many of the conditions we get diagnosed with when we get long COVID.

So, I hope that patients will have hope and where they have the energy to give to become part of our work calling for solutions so that we can get the tests and treatments and hopefully a care that we need.

Dr.

Michael Peluso and Meighan Stone, thank you both so much.

MICHAEL PELUSO: Thanks a lot.

MEIGHAN STONE: Thank you so much for having us.

JOHN YANG: A lot of us leave electronic devices plugged in when we're not using them and don't give it a second thought.

But many everyday items can drain energy even when they're turned off.

Things like coffee machines, video game consoles and laptop chargers.

They account for between 5 and 10 percent of nationwide home energy use.

Stephanie Sy spoke with Alexis Abramson, Dean and Professor at the Climate School in Columbia University, to learn more about the effect of these so called vampire devices.

STEPHANIE SY: Alexis, thank you so much for joining us.

So what exactly is a vampire device and what are some of the everyday culprits we might find in our homes?

ALEXIS ABRAMSON, Columbia University: So vampire are sometimes called phantom load devices essentially are devices that consume electricity when they're plugged in, but maybe not actively in use.

So they might appear off, but they're still drawing a small amount of electricity.

So TVs are common culprits, game consoles, streaming devices, computers, monitors, printers, even phone and laptop chargers and smart appliances, coffee makers, microwaves with those clocks on them all can contribute to phantom loads.

STEPHANIE SY: One quick question.

If you turn off a power strip, is it still drawing energy as well?

ALEXIS ABRAMSON: Usually not.

So a power strip is usually not drawing much, maybe a tiny amount of electricity when it's off.

But today there are things called smart power strips or smart plugs, and you can actually program those to turn on and off in various parts of the day.

So maybe you leave the office at 6:00 p.m.

you come back in at 8:00 a.m.

and they actually can be programmed to be completely off or near completely off during that time period.

STEPHANIE SY: So how much energy is being wasted this way?

ALEXIS ABRAMSON: So, relatively speaking, it's a small amount of energy per electronic device or per appliance.

So we're talking about maybe 5 percent, maybe up to 10 percent of a total household's electricity use might be attributed to this phantom or vampire load.

But for some homes, that can really be about $100, maybe to $200 annually.

So overall, it can actually be a pretty substantial amount.

STEPHANIE SY: Are manufacturers in any way pressured to redesign their products so that there aren't these sort of phantom extra energy systems that continue to run even when we're not actively using the appliances?

ALEXIS ABRAMSON: Yes, absolutely.

So manufacturers are more and more designing different features to make sure that either the consumer has the ability to turn things off, like really turn things off, or make sure they have the ability to put things in more of a sleep mode when possible.

STEPHANIE SY: Ultimately, though, when it comes to the environment and in particularly climate change, how much of a difference would it make if everyone became more conscientious about unplugging devices that they don't use?

ALEXIS ABRAMSON: So with respect to climate change, every electron saved is a reduction in the greenhouse gas emissions, usually that goes into the atmosphere, and therefore that we have to worry about from a climate change perspective.

So, if we can just avoid the use of the energy, then that is the best way possible in order to avoid the greenhouse gas emissions that fossil fuel power plants generate to provide electricity.

If everybody in the country could do just a little bit of something, we would then be able to reduce that total energy consumption and thereby help mitigate the climate crisis.

STEPHANIE SY: And what are some basic steps that somebody can do right away to ensure that their vampire devices in their homes are not sucking more energy than they need?

ALEXIS ABRAMSON: Probably the easiest thing that people can do is unplug devices when they're not in use.

This includes things like cell phone chargers.

Oftentimes we leave those chargers plugged into the wall, and many of them can draw some electricity, even when that phone isn't charging.

Another thing to be able to do is if you have some kind of wall switch, you know, you can use that wall switch to turn that device on and off.

The maybe the next step is to be able to use smart power strips or smart plugs.

And then the other thing is when you're in need of a new appliance or a new electronic device, just make sure you're looking for that Energy Star label when you're walking into that big box store.

It will cut costs on your monthly electricity bill and really help the world in a way that you're not emitting more greenhouse gases than you absolutely have to.

STEPHANIE SY: That is Alexis Abramson with Columbia's Climate School.

Thank you so much for joining us.

ALEXIS ABRAMSON: Thank you very much.

Happy to be here.

JOHN YANG: Finally tonight, from northern Spain, the dying culinary art of making the most expensive cheese in the world.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): In this dank dark cave is some of the world's most prized cheese.

It's where cheesemaker in Carni Bhatta produced the most expensive cheese ever sold at auction, more than $40,000 for a five pound wheel of Cabrales blue cheese.

ENCARNACION BADA, Cheesemaker (through translator): It's expensive.

There's a lot of publicity.

They see you everywhere.

The truth is I've already had people who come because they saw you in Germany or I don't know where, and they come looking for cheese.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): Authentic Cabrales must sit for months in humid limestone caves, absorbing the unique microflora that gives its pungent flavor and aroma.

Bada's family has been aging cheese here for decades.

Her daughter in law, Eva Gutierrez, follows in her footsteps.

She straps a 44 pound load of cheeses on her back and carries it up a steep winding footpath to the aging caves in the mountains of northern Spain's Asturias region.

ENCARNACION BADA (through translator): For us who grew up with it's a way of preserving a culture, a tradition that our grandparents and our parents taught us.

I'm continuing with it, and I hope my son will, too.

At least he'll learn it.

I don't know if he'll make a living from it or not, but he'll learn it.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): Traditionally, making cheese here has been the work of women, but the future is uncertain.

There are now fewer than 20 artisanal cheesemakers.

WOMAN (through translator): What can you do?

You think maybe the world's going to end if you don't make your cheese, but it will go on still.

It's something you say to yourself, and then if I stop, there's no more.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): And that uncertain future could push prices even higher.

JOHN YANG: And that is PBS News Weekend for this Saturday.

I'm John Yang.

For all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us.

See you tomorrow.